PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2018
San Diego, California
Toward a Functional Grammar of Physics Equations
Page: 1154
An area of student difficulty in introductory physics courses is how they use and reason with equations. We propose that part of this difficulty is due to meaning that is embedded in the structure of equations. As equations are manipulated, their structure and concomitant meanings change. As mathematics is considered the “language of physics,” our starting point will be to propose that it has a grammar. As equations change form and meaning, they are doing so within a certain grammatical system. We will show how physics equations can be categorized and mapped to ideational clause types as devised by Halliday (1994). This mapping could be useful in relating the mathematical “language” used in physics to “natural language,” benefitting physics instructors who are trying to understand the struggles of their students, and helping students to understand the rich meanings embedded in physics equations